Tag Archives: sunsets

Sunrises and Sunsets

The last few weeks have seen an amazing number of great sunrises and sunsets. Some of it is held by the fact that dawn and dusk are now at sensible viewing times but you need clouds for both and that’s something we often lack. However we’ve been having a lot of cloud cover of late at least during the day, clearing at night for the temperature to drop only to reoccur soon after dawn.

Not much else has happened over the last few weekends because Stuart had been busy with work. I’ve completed my rehab and been discharged. Stuart is still having weekly blood taken. Hopefully he’ll soon get his levels down to a sensible figure and we can get Saturday mornings back. This weekend is another public holiday so whilst we had planned to go camping again this weekend we’re not so certain that it’s a good idea now. Sydney is due to be 28°C this weekend which is hot for this time of year. We’re only a fortnight away from the official beginning of winter!

One other bit of exciting news happened at the end of last week. With our visa due to expire next April, we’d been looking at what extensions to it were available. None because shortly after Stuart was granted it back in 2016, the visa we came over on was abolished. So we needed to apply for its replacement which only lasted 2 years or another visa. The only obvious alternative was a Permanent Residency visa. But listening to people asking questions about it on FB it sounded like it would take years to obtain it. So we started to investigate and found out that it had to be applied for before Stuart was 50 yrs old. So 1 week before his birthday, we submitted the application via an agency his work use to facilitate these applications. We were called for a medical much earlier than we had expected, in fact within 5-6 weeks of submitting the application. We never really expected to get it because of my health so we did nothing to hide any of my health problems. Last week we got the news through. 2 months 1 week after submitting the application and 3 years since leaving the UK, we’ve been granted a permanent residency visa. It goes without saying that we were surprised.

Last weekend was also the wool expo on Canberra. We didn’t know what to expect but there were plenty of stalls from handmade crafts and loads of wool stalls, some fibre stalls and a few catering vans as well. Wool ranged from sheep through to yak, silk, alpaca, llama, possum and dog. Possum yarn is the latest thing from New Zealand desperately trying to deal with the massive numbers of non-native wildlife in the country. Apparently there are 4.4 million people in New Zealand and a massive 70 million possum! It’s the brushtail possum from Australia. Dog hair and well anything like that including cat is one of the latest things in the crafts market. I’m not that certain about it to be perfectly honest.

Anyhow Stuart was very patient and I was very careful with what I spent, honest. Stuart purchase me a book called Silk Road Socks at Christmas and is been looking for suitable yarn for socks from the book. I now have a good selection along with a hand carved wooden bowl to keep a ball of yarn in (when the yarn is in use) and 2 bags of fleece for spinning. One is the softest merino and the other a beautifully soft alpaca.

Stuart’s Birthday Holiday Part 1

After a couple of days where neither of us had felt particularly well, we were finally packed and ready to go. It had taken a lot of effort and Stuart, sadly, had been left to do all of the packing, but we were ready. The chickens had been taken care of and we were ready.

I got to the end of the track and automatically pulled to the right to check the letterbox. There was something but it turned out to be just another medical appointments and not another birthday card for an upcoming big birthday.

A big voice piped up saying where were we going? I had assumed that given the gas tank was empty and we needed one or two items from Woolies that we were going to the right. No, I guess because I’d made that decision it influenced a certain birthday person and we were to head off to the right, into Gunning to the Merino Cafe for lunch. We know they will make me a vegan lunch and they have a dairy free dessert, so we were sorted.

There could be photos but I’m not sure. However, the menu hasn’t changed so it’s likely that most readers have already actually seen the food and don’t actually need a photo. However, Stuart had the vegetarian frittata which was deep, layered and topped with sweet potato mash. I got the standard roasted vegetables in a toasted wrap. It’s very tasty but it’s my only option and it’s getting a little boring now.

After lunch we headed onto the Hume Highway and south west towards Melbourne. Our next stop was to be at a roadside cafe (excellent vegan options and always seem to be adding new ones onto the menu). A change of driver followed and before long we headed off the highway and onto the Snowy Mountains Highway. We were to pop into the Yarrangobilly Caves Visitor’s Center to establish it was too late in the day to take a dip in the thermal pools, so we headed off to make camp. Yarrangobilly Village camp was dismissed because we had driven through the middle of it (literally) and it was busy. So we headed off down a dirt road I had long been trying to go down. The first camp we decided against, again it was busy and we thought we could get a quieter camp. We had a few others we could investigate but we decided on Ghost Gully for our first night. When we got there, there was 1 other set of people and their horses, ideal. That was it.

The camp was ideal. No drinking water (very common but not a problem), toilets, BBQ sites and plenty of places to tether a horse or two.

This camp also had a road through the middle of it and you had to cross the road for the other set of toilets. The first set were being hogged by the horse people. But the road was best described as “quiet”. In the morning, we were to venture that way.

But for tonight, this was our “new” tent.

Our evening meal was “ready made” from the night before, a dairy free and exceptionally good macaroni cheese with peas.

Then after a great sunset, it was time for a game of cards (cribbage) or two, and bed. It was dark by 7:45pm!